Microscopic image of an ultralow-noise prototype device made from a tantalum-based nanowire with several metal electrodes. The scale bar is 1 micrometer. Credit: Balandin Lab/UCLA That low-frequency fuzz that can bedevil cellphone calls has to do with how electrons move through and interact in materials at the smallest scale. The electronic flicker noise is often caused by interruptions in the flow of electrons by various scattering processes in the metals